{"id":80741,"date":"2025-02-25T15:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T20:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=80741"},"modified":"2025-02-25T15:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T20:08:08","slug":"mercedes-will-stop-treating-evs-as-a-separate-lineup-and-thats-a-good-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=80741","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes will stop treating EVs as a separate lineup and thats a good thing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mercedes will use the designation \u201cwith EQ technology\u201d rather than naming its EVs with separate \u201cEQ\u201d model names, to focus on treating them more like normal models \u2013\u00a0in what this author considers an overdue move.<\/p>\n

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For many years now, Mercedes has added \u201cEQ\u201d to the model name of its electric models, as in the Mercedes EQS<\/a>, EQE<\/a> and so on. It\u2019s meant to stand for \u201celectric intelligence,\u201d a play on the concept of \u201cIQ.\u201d<\/p>\n

The convention started with Mercedes\u2019 EQ concept cars<\/a>, first named as such in 2016 (special mention here for the awesome EQA hot hatch concept<\/a>, which ended up turning into an SUV<\/a>\u2026 sigh).<\/p>\n

Since then, Mercedes has carried it over into all of its electric models, treating \u201cEQ\u201d as a separate sub-brand or a model line on its own, to distinguish it from the company\u2019s staid fossil-powered offerings.<\/p>\n

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But that has led to some confusion among buyers. With models named EQA, EQB, EQC, EQE, EQE SUV, EQS, EQS SUV, EQV, and EQT, it starts to look like alphabet soup.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mercedes noticed this confusion and commented on it back in 2023, when it first announced its plan<\/a> to drop EQ branding from its model names.<\/p>\n

Mercedes buyers are used to the convention of naming vehicles with lettering based on body style and numbers based on engine displacement. But for the EV line, all vehicles share the letters \u201cEQ,\u201d which could lead customers to think that there is some similarity between them, and engine displacement doesn\u2019t really make any sense to apply to an EV. So there is room for confusion there.<\/p>\n

Instead, Mercedes now says it will follow the convention it established with the release of the electric G-Class<\/a>, which it officially calls \u201cG580 with EQ technology.\u201d That \u201cwith EQ technology\u201d portion will stick and be carried through other Mercedes EVs, like the upcoming electric CLA<\/a>. Plug-in hybrids will use \u201cwith EQ hybrid technology\u201d as their designation.<\/p>\n

Mercedes is treating this as somewhat of a compromise between dropping \u201cEQ\u201d entirely and still maintaining continuity with its past electric models. In this way, there is still a way to tell that a model is electric, but they will be treated more like \u201cnormal\u201d models within the model range, instead of as a separate sub-brand.<\/p>\n

Alongside these changes, Mercedes has also signaled a return to more \u201ctraditional\u201d designs for its EVs, such as a fake grille<\/a> for the 2025 EQS and perhaps less streamlined exterior shapes for upcoming EVs.<\/p>\n

Electrek\u2019s Take<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s a bit of a mouthful, especially on the first available model with such naming, the G580 with EQ Technology \u2013 but we expect that people will start calling it \u201cthe electric G-Class\u201d or \u201cG-Class EQ\u201d (perhaps a similar treatment to how people use AMG) or thereabouts, and that as other models gain the same designation, they will get the same colloquial treatment until it eventually feels normal. (Although, we still don\u2019t know what the \u201c580\u201d means in that name).<\/p>\n

And, I have long thought that automakers should do something like this, and treat electric models as normal models rather than some foreign thing.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen a lot of odd naming conventions from automakers as they try to figure out what to call their EVs \u2013 like Audi, which originally introduced the E-tron as a singular concept model and later ended up using it as a designation for anything with an electric motor, or BMW, which started a separate \u201cProjekt i\u201d sub-brand in the early days (with actually interesting designs for once<\/em>), then killed it off, then brought back the \u201ci\u201d to make more conventional-looking vehicles.<\/p>\n

My theory is that by treating models as something foreign, something different, you create an internal conflict within the organization, confusion among customers, and all-in-all make the EVs seem less like a \u201cnormal\u201d choice that a buyer could make. It almost feels like you\u2019d have to go to a separate dealership, talk to a separate specialist, in order to find an EV. It adds another layer of friction which could push customers away.<\/p>\n

But EVs don\u2019t need to be different and weird, especially here in 2025 where just about everyone at this point has seen them, taken rides in them, has a friend who has one, or something of the sort. And if the entire auto industry is going to electrify \u2013\u00a0which, I think it bears repeating, is happening<\/a><\/em> and is inevitable<\/a><\/em>, no matter who tries to stop it <\/a>\u2013\u00a0at some point we need to drop this idea that EVs are \u201csomething else\u201d and recognize that they\u2019re just cars.<\/p>\n

So, why not call EVs something normal? Every gas car gets its own name \u2013 Tucson, Elantra, Camry, Palisade \u2013\u00a0so why can\u2019t EVs just be normal too? Let\u2019s get more Taycans, more Dolphins, more Leafs.<\/p>\n

And, this is one step along the way towards that for Mercedes, and that\u2019s a good thing. Other automakers should consider the same.<\/p>\n

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Mercedes will use the designation \u201cwith EQ technology\u201d rather than naming its EVs with separate \u201cEQ\u201d model names, to focus on treating them more like normal models \u2013\u00a0in what this author considers an overdue move. For many years now, Mercedes has added \u201cEQ\u201d to the model name of its electric models, as in the Mercedes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}